Main Cast: Mira Sorvino, Jeremy Northam, Josh Brolin, Giancarlo Giannini, Charles S. Dutton
Release Year: 1997
Country: US
Run Time: 105 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
While one would imagine that the average New Yorker would be used to dealing with bugs after years of apartment dwelling, a scientific experiment gone wrong results in an insect that even Raid can't handle in this sci-fi/horror thriller. In Manhattan, cockroaches are spreading a deadly disease that is claiming hundreds of the city's children, so entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) uses genetic engineering techniques to create what she and her colleague (and husband) Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) call the Judas Breed, a large insect that will feed on the disease carrying roaches. Since the Judas bugs have been designed so that they can't breed, the mutated species should die out in a matter of a few years. However, Susan, Peter, and their staff severely underestimated the cockroach's ability to adapt to its conditions. The Judas Breed has indeed found a way to reproduce itself, but more importantly, the insect has grown remarkably large (sometimes reaching six feet in length), has developed a taste for meat, and can mimic the appearance and behavior of other creatures with uncanny accuracy -- including humans. Susan and Peter have learned that huge swarms of the Judas Breed are living beneath the city in the subway system, and with the help of Leonard (Charles S. Dutton), a transit system employee who knows the labyrinth of subway tunnels like the back of his hand, they search out the humanoid insects before they can take over the city. Mimic also features Giancarlo Giannini, Josh Brolin, and F. Murray Abraham. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Bugs, if used well, will continue to serve as terrifying movie villains, and Guillermo Del Toro keeps the creepy-crawly tradition rolling with Mimic, in which human-sized cockroaches inhabit the defunct New York City subway system. Scientists trying to play God should know by now that it's not a good idea, but Mira Sorvino, an expectant mother, courts disaster in order to bring an end to the epidemic that's rapidly wiping out the city's children. Del Toro establishes a morbid, eerie tone, and his crisp filmmaking gives the events a sense of desperate emergency. He can't help tripping over some clichés in what is essentially familiar territory, as a team of scientists and other do-gooders descend into subterranean New York to save a young boy who, in a chilling device, communicates to the bugs through a clicking pattern with kitchen utensils. But there are enough real shocks and doses of sheer icky-ness hiding in the shadows to keep this bug movie humming. Because much of the action takes place below street level, viewers are invited to contemplate just how intricately this underground network of tunnels and access chambers was designed, and how surprisingly deep into the earth it plunges. Sorvino's balance between toughness and fragility, evident in much of her work, is well served for a character who opened Pandora's Box and is now trying to shut it, despite her petrified unfamiliarity with her own horrid creation. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
Alexander Goodwin - Chuy; Alix Koromzay - Remy; F. Murray Abraham - Dr. Gates
Credit
Tamara Deverell - Art Director, Clark Henderson - Associate Producer, Kerry Barden - Casting, Billy Hopkins - Casting, Suzanne Smith - Casting, Richard Potter - Co-producer, Cary Granat - Co-producer, Andrew Rona - Co-producer, Scott Shiffman - Co-producer, Michael Zoumas - Co-producer, Marie-Sylvie Deveau - Costume Designer, Walter Gasparovic - First Assistant Director, Guillermo del Toro - Director, Rick Bota - Second Unit Director, Robert Rodriguez - Second Unit Director, J.J. Authors - Second Unit Director, Patrick Lussier - Editor, Michael Phillips - Executive Producer, Marco Beltrami - Composer (Music Score), Carol Spier - Production Designer, Dan Laustsen - Cinematographer, B.J. Rack - Producer, Bob Weinstein - Producer, Ole Bornedal - Producer, Elinor Rose Galbraith - Set Designer, Glen Gauthier - Sound/Sound Designer, Matthew Robbins - Screen Story, Guillermo del Toro - Screen Story, Matthew Robbins - Screenwriter, John Sayles - Screenwriter, Guillermo del Toro - Screenwriter, Matthew Greenberg - Screenwriter, Donald A. Wolheim - Short Story Author
Although del Toro was unhappy with the film as released [2], it includes several examples of his most characteristic hallmarks. "I have a sort of a fetish for insects, clockwork, monsters, dark places, and unborn things," said del Toro[2], and this is evident in Mimic, where at times all are combined in long, brooding shots of dark, cluttered, muddy chaotic spaces. According to Alfonso Cuaron, del Toro's friend and colleague, "with Guillermo the shots are almost mathematical — everything is planned.”[3] That feature is evident too in Mimic, in the photography, most notably in the brooding shots described above and especially in the set design.
In Manhattan, cockroaches are spreading a deadly disease that is claiming hundreds of the city's children. Entomologist Susan Tyler (Mira Sorvino) uses genetic engineering to create what she and her colleague (and husband) Peter Mann (Jeremy Northam) call the Judas Breed, a large insect (looking like a cross between a termite and a praying mantis) that releases an enzyme that kills off the disease-carrying roaches by speeding up their metabolism. The Judas Breed work spectacularly and the crisis is abated. Since the Judas Breed have also been designed to be sterile and unable to breed, the hybrid species should die out in a matter of months.
Some years later, people begin to go missing in the subways and tunnels under the city. Susan, Peter, and their staff learn that they severely underestimated the Judas Breed's ability to adapt to its conditions. The Judas Breed has found a way to reproduce and has evolved in order to better hunt a new food source. To everyone's horror, they discover that the Judas' new food source is humans, and now the insects have grown to be as big as people and can mimic the appearance and behavior of humans with uncanny accuracy. Susan and Peter have learned that huge swarms of the Judas Breed are living beneath the city in the subway system, and with the help of Leonard (Charles S. Dutton), a transit system police officer, they search out the insects, whose quick evolution (one fertile male and hordes of females) also made them humanoid, before they can take over the city and from there the world.
Box office
According to Box Office Mojo, its domestic gross is $25,480,490; it did not beat its budget of 30 million dollars.[3]
Reception
Mimic currently holds a 55% fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes.com.[4]
Related works
Mimic was planned as one of three 30 minute short films intended to be shown together. It was expanded into a full length movie, as was Impostor. The short film Alien Love Triangle remains a 30 minute short film, and has never been released. [5]
